forever young

The Word for today:
Psalm 28, 29

mark this: Psalms 28:7-9
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
The LORD is the strength of his people;
he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
Oh, save your people and bless your heritage!
Be their shepherd and carry them forever.

When is a child no longer a child?

There are lots of way stations that might mark childhood's end:
the first time they cross the street without holding your hand;
the first time they ride the sled down the big hill, alone;
the first time they ask you if you're OK.

But as I look back, there was a day my four kids hold in common which marked the end of their Act 1. It wasn't something they did, it was something I stopped doing.

I stopped carrying them. There comes the day when they no longer hold their arms up, waiting to be carried, like kids do. Or the day when a tired Daddy doesn't bend down to pick them up. Or the day when they, suddenly somehow, look too big for Mommy to carry anymore.

But there are no end-of-the-way stations like that in the kingdom of heaven. God never gets too tired to carry us. And we never get so big.

Some of us may, for a long while, stop lifting waiting arms to him. But there comes the day when we, adult as we think we are, just can't make it across that street or back up that hill, alone.

It's right then and there that we're lifted up high, taken up by a power outside of ourselves. In the kingdom of heaven, youth is not confined to the young.

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